Runaway Schedule
by FairyWriting
Summary: A one shot featuring the irritating morning of one Valerie Grey.


A chilling, dreary rain poured from the morning sky, mixing with the snow on the ground to create an unpleasant slush. Yesterday it snowed, today it rained. If the temperature fell any lower, the rain would become snow again. The fresh wave of cold weather buried pitiful plants that had hoped to grow the week before when the weather showed the kindest warmth. It was quiet unlike the ideal image of spring the girl who walked through the wet conditions had just days prior.

Valerie Gray was not in the mood to be bothered. She was stressed, anxious, and vaguely paranoid. All feelings she accepted as a part of life after adopting ghost hunting. Yet the intensity of the feelings was far higher levels than usual; but, she was unable figure out why that was. Missing the bus and forced to walk through terrible weather to get to school would be a likely culprit, except she had felt that way since she woke up that morning.

When a familiar ghost whirled past her, it was not hard to figure out what she wanted to do with her excess negative emotions.

"Hey, ghost!" She called out to him as her gear activated.

He looked back in confusion for a moment before his expression changed into one of shock as he saw a blast from her ecto gun being projected at him. Quick to understand the situation, he began to dodge her shots with a frustrating amount of ease.

"Isn't it a little early for this?" He snapped at her.

"No." Valerie gave the simple reply with a smile on her lips.

She took aim again, her next shot nearly hitting its mark.

"Are you _sure_ you don't have something more important to do?" The ghost yelled out in frustration.

"Not besides kicking your butt, I don't!" She shouted back.

He gave an exasperated sigh. "Well I do!"

Taking a sharp turn, he went intangible moments before hitting the sides of the nearest building. Phasing through the wall unharmed, he disappeared from her sight. She hovered in front of the window, pacing back and forth attempting to see him through the windows. Unable to spot him, she circled the structure to see if he had reappeared somewhere else.

There was no sign of him.

"He got away." She murmured.

Giving a final glance at the street below her, her eyes followed it all the way down to the school building. Her mouth dropped in sudden remembrance as to why she was out in the poor weather.

"I'm late for class!"

With little debate she decided her board was the quickest way to class. With great relief, she did not see any other students running late. That meant no one was around to notice her returning to her casual clothes. That relief did not stop her from running down the hallway frantically, leaving small puddles behind her with every step.

She skidded to a sudden halt before the classroom door. Before her exploits as the Red Huntress, she would have kept skidding or have tripped over her feet, especially in her slush covered shoes. Now the slide was nearly graceful, partly due to skill gained from ghost hunting and partly due to how many times she had run late since she began hunting.

"Sorry I'm late, sir!" She opened the door." The weather is-"

At once, she wished she had entered the room unannounced. Every student but her had shown up for class on time, even the often missing Danny Fenton, and each of them stared at her. Her eyes wandered to the stapled pieces of paper that were on each of the desks, excluding her own. Tests. It was a test day. Her eyes widened with horror.

That was the forgotten source of anxiety. It had been the reason she had been so anxious to hurry and defeat that stupid ghost-boy the night before: to finish reading an assigned novel. She had been so exhausted afterwards she had barely made it home before falling asleep. The same reason she had overslept and missed the bus. It frustrated her to know that a run in with Phantom could cause her to forget something so important. She wished that she had landed a good hit on the ghost this morning, if only to make her feel better.

"Kind of you to join us, Miss Gray." Mr. Lancer offered her a test." Now if everyone would get back to their tests, I would suggestion you start yours."

Taking her seat, she glared at the eyes that followed her. A few classmates were concerned at her tardiness. Most gave her unsympathetic smirks.

The test in front of her contained almost entirely of unfamiliar materials. Even the names of the books that composed the test barely registered in her mind. She read one the afternoon before and another book had been discussed in class. While that was only half the material the test covered, she was sure she could at least manage a D or even a C- if she guessed the rest. Part of this forced optimism was her heart would not be able to bear her father's face if she returned home with an F. Again.

"OK, I can do this," she muttered to herself.

As she begun to answer the questions, a sense of hope filled her. She knew the answer to the first question and the second. The third was from the book she had not finished, but she knew the answer from pop culture. If the questions continued in this way, she decided she stood a chance. Then it became clear to her that she did not.

She glared at the paper, knowing she read the book the next question was about. Unable to think of the answer and refusing to leave it blank, she guessed. It was the same for the next, and the one that followed it. In the end, she had only answered a third of them with her own knowledge.

The last four questions of the test had not even been attempted when Mr. Lancer began collecting the papers. She frantically wrote out one more answer before he took it from her.

"Man, was that one harder than the last one or what?" Valerie heard Tucker complain to his friends.

"Tell me about it." Valerie grumbled to herself.

She had not expected them to hear her, but Danny acknowledged her comment with a, "You, too?"

"What was even up with number five?" She exclaimed, turning in her seat to face them.

"It made no sense!" Tucker agreed.

"Guys. " Sam interrupted the complaints." You could have answered that if you read the back of the book."

"Sam, you're lucky we read the inside of the book." Danny rolled his eyes. "Well, some of the inside at least."

"Now, class!" The four of them jumped in their seats as Mr. Lancer called for his class's attention. "There is one more test before report cards, so if you did not do well on this test, it would be wise to pay extra attention to the next book we will be reading."

Valerie groaned. A test based solely on class materials she could handle. Another book was just another thing to get stressed over when it got pushed aside due to her 'work'. She had begun to wonder if she should be hoping for a D or C- minus for the class and not just the test.

Life would not go easy on her.


End file.
